A Sky-Blue Mat and Braces
by Yotsubadancesintherain5
Summary: Pearl can't help holding on to her knee like a life preserver but someone can help her out. Written for Take Your Fandom to Work Day.


Pearl shoved her shoes into the white metal shelf that was table tied with a dark green shelf, flinching inwardly at the clatter that the sneakers made. She nearly ripped her socks off her feet, and stuffed them into her shoes, and rushed to the blue mat. Taking a moment to bow to the flags before racing across the mat, watching the instructors teach the class before her and begging silently, "Please don't call me over, please don't call me over," she managed to get her card right before the previous class was called to line up. Now it would show that she attended the class officially.

Pearl stood at attention when the instructor reminded everyone in the dojo that the black belt test was on Saturday, come and see for reference if you'd like. Pearl would have to make a schedule time to see one of the tests someday. Maybe when she was a brown belt instead of a purple belt. That would take a few years, but her Saturdays might open up then.

The next class lined up, and Pearl found herself situated somewhere in the middle. It was a surprisingly big class this time. Pearl didn't really mind; there were a lot of other purple belts, and she wanted to learn the new material quickly.

The class began as usual. The person at the left, top hand corner - the highest belt - would call out the words "attention, bow" in Korean and the instructor would make the first choice of exercise.

This time, it was running around the mat. Pearl nearly crashed into the person in front of her, but managed to go the same speed as everyone else when they had to run backwards. Sideways skipping, both ways, and then it was time for rolling. The purple belts were given an instruction as how to front roll, and it hurt her head when she pulled her hair on the mat, but Pearl was complimented on improving since the last time. She gave a quick, "Thank you, sir," before hurrying into another roll.

By the end of the rolling, the class was sent back into lines. They did the standard warm-up, stretches of the hands, knees, arms, legs, rolling shoulders and heads around. There was also folding their legs under them, and lying backwards, which made Pearl's throat ache from holding her head back. She breathed out when she was able to get up again.

From there, it was front kicks, inside and outside kicks, side kicks, and something that Pearl dreaded - roundhouse kicks. Her foot pivots were excellent except for these ones. For whatever reason her feet just didn't want to move, but she hoped she made up for it in kiyaps, the yell that tightened the stomach and made everything more powerful.

On the third roundhouse kick, Pearl felt a jolt of pain in her knee and heard a soft popping sound, and fell to the mat, landing on her back. She made a cry of pain and tried to move her leg, but her knee made it too painful.

"Pearl!" the instructor said. He stopped the class from the next roundhouse kick and went to help Pearl lift herself up from the mat helping her stand. "Are you all right?"

"It hurts," she hissed. It was like someone had stabbed her knee with an ice-cold knife, and it left a burning sensation in its place. She couldn't breathe without her voice sounding shaky.

"What happened?" the instructor asked. Pearl could see her classmates look at her with worry and pity.

"My knee, I think I popped it," Pearl managed to say. "I don't think I can walk on it..."

"All right," the instructor said. "I'll take you to the training room, and you can call someone, okay?"

"T-that would help," she said.

The instructor settled her onto a punching bag that was leaning on its side against the wall, and asked to see the afflicted knee. When Pearl showed him, he said that it wasn't swollen and that was much better. He told her to put something warm on it, and went to the office to get the phone and an icy-hot pack. Pearl was holding on to her knee. She couldn't help it, she hadn't felt pain like this before. Not even when she used to do ballet as a kid.

She heard the door to the women's changing room clatter, and somebody walked into the training room. A woman with long, pink hair and a faded white uniform, with a belt that was colored red with a single black stripe sewn into the middle of it. She noticed Pearl and smiled.

"Hello, are you going to the next class?"

"No," said Pearl. She winced when her knee seemed to pulsate with pain. "I'm from the other class, I popped my knee."

The woman sat down next to Pearl. "That sucks. I remember the first time I popped my knee."

"What happened?"

"I landed on it funny. Though, it wasn't as bad when I landed on my elbow funny. Or when I tore a ligament in my ankle." The woman pulled back the sleeve of her uniform to show the elbow brace.

"So, you wear them all the time?" Pearl asked.

"Only the knee and elbow brace. It's more like a crutch," the woman said. "But it doesn't hurt. You wanna see the knee brace, get the name of the brand? I've had it for a while and it hasn't given out on me."

Pearl nodded, and the woman drew back her right pant leg to reveal the tan colored knee brace. There were thin, web-like raised skin on her leg.

Pearl must have been staring longer than she had thought, because the woman laughed and said, "You can ask about those. I don't mind."

"Well... what happened with them?"

"I was out swimming in the ocean and I scratched up my legs pretty badly on the rocks. I literally trailed blood when I walked, and there was nobody else around. I managed to find somebody to help, and she drove me to a hospital."

The woman chuckled. "That's how I found out about this place, actually. She had one of the shirts in the back seat of her car and helped stop the bleeding with them. They were from the forty-sixth annual tournament, too."

That event was a little intimidating to Pearl. She had thought about sparring, but since she was a purple belt she would be in her own division and have to hope there were other purple belts that were adults.

"I'm glad that you made it," said Pearl.

"Aw, I'm glad too," said the woman. "You know, I haven't asked your name. I'm Sheena." She showed her belt; the black stripe and red side showing her name in Korean and the pure red side her name in English, both written in black marker. The black stripe and red side made the name a little squished in.

"I'm Pearl."

Before Sheena could reply, a different instructor returned with the phone and icy-hot pack.

"Mr. W told me you needed this," said the instructor. He handed the things to Pearl and smiled when he saw Sheena.

"Are you trying to get Pearl to join your motorcycle gang, Sheena?"

"No, sir," she replied in the same joking tone. "I told you, if I did make one you'd be the first to know."

"Right, right," said the instructor. "Be sure to warm up for class, okay?"

"Yes, sir."

The instructor left, and Pearl opened up the pack to put it on her knee. It did help.

"Hey, Pearl," said Sheena. "I live close to the dojo. If you want, I could help you with exercises to make your knee feel better."

Pearl smiled, and felt her cheeks warm. "I'd like that."

**A/N: Originally posted on AO3 on February 23 2017**


End file.
